Which type of area was your bike stolen from?:
Other situation, please describe below.
How was the bike locked?:
Other situation, please describe below.
How long was the bike locked in this location?:
Unattended for less than 5 minutes.
Incident Description:
On 10/17/17, the CSBR received an email from the former victim:
"My bike and a substantial amount of booze were stolen from the back of my place of work (Revel Room in Wicker Park) right at last call on Friday night. After closing time, we reviewed camera footage, circled the entire neighborhood, filed a police report, etc. The following night around 10:00pm, the thief thought it'd be a good idea to come back to the scene of the crime (idiot) likely thinking he and his friends could get away with stealing more booze. He was arrested in front of the bar, and he later admitted to everything. The cops then found my bike in his parents' garage. Unfortunately none of the booze was recovered with the exception of two partially consumed bottles. I was then finally able to ride my bike home from the police station at 6:00 Sunday morning. I'm still blown away by how everything came full circle in the matter of 24 hours. I couldn't be more thankful for the Chicago bike community and for all the friends who spread the word on this incident."
I bartend at The Revel Room in Wicker Park. For the last 2.5 years, I've been riding my bike to work and have kept it in the very back near our office and walk-in cooler. It is an employees only area. On Friday night at 1:20am I stepped to the back behind our building to take a 5 minute break. I noticed my bike was outside tucked between two buildings. I thought to myself "that's strange and also not cool." I took the bike back inside (the back door automatically locks from the outside) and asked my entire staff if they had touched or moved my bike outside. They all replied with an honest "no." After 2:00am rolls around, we are closing the bar, my door guy and I notice that my bike is no longer in the back. He rides around the neighborhood (twice) and doesn't see anything. We take a look at the security cameras and see my barback taking a quick smoke break in the back around 1:25am, the bike is still there. Not even 5 minutes after he comes back in at exactly 1:30am, there is a man frantically walking out the back door with my bike and 3 to 4 bottles of alcohol. He snuck right past my floor past at the exact moment that we were doing last call at the bar. My door guys recognized him from the camera and identified him as being roughly 6 feet tall, thin, hispanic, very long hair in a pony tail, and a beard, mid to late twenties. Once I collected myself, I then filed a police report.